Neuroscience of Creativity (MIT Press)

Neuroscience of Creativity (MIT Press)

James C. Kaufman

Language: English

Pages: 330

ISBN: 0262019582

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of the latest neuroscientific approaches to the scientific study of creativity. In chapters that progress logically from neurobiological fundamentals to systems neuroscience and neuroimaging, leading scholars describe the latest theoretical, genetic, structural, clinical, functional, and applied research on the neural bases of creativity. The treatment is both broad and in depth, offering a range of neuroscientific perspectives with detailed coverage by experts in each area. The contributors discuss such issues as the heritability of creativity; creativity in patients with brain damage, neurodegenerative conditions, and mental illness; clinical interventions and the relationship between psychopathology and creativity; neuroimaging studies of intelligence and creativity; the neuroscientific basis of creativity-enhancing methodologies; and the information-processing challenges of viewing visual art.

multiple items, but which is identical to none of them. The distributions of neurons they activate might overlap substantially, or they might overlap with respect to only a few features. Because of the phenomenon of reconstructive interference, the result may be an insight that combines elements of both. The greater the extent to which they differ, the greater the extent to which the insight will How Insight Emerges 37 appear to be an instance of transformative rather than merely exploratory

results (Mandelman & Grigorenko, 2011). Hence, no specific gene or gene variants have been robustly associated with phenotypes of intelligence. The most recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) for cognitive ability, conducted with five cohorts of relatively healthy middle-aged to older adults, concluded that a substantial proportion of the variance in intelligence is associated with common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, the most common type of polymorphism in the human genome, which

hypothesis” (Witt, 1993), which considers the evolution 82 B. Barbot, M. Tan, and E. L. Grigorenko of culture to be based on biological evolution, Ruprecht (2005) argues that two evolutionary learning processes—reinforcement learning and social cognitive learning processes—explain the adoption of sweeteners by diverse cultures. The “continuity hypothesis” proposed by Witt (2003) suggests that human preferences result from learning processes that rely on certain universal “wants” that have

knowledge. By inference, then, the pathway would be involved in the creative process. Creativity in Artists Is Prescient Unbound by rigid rules such as those imposed in scientific investigations, successful artists are free to let their minds soar, and this, in combination with their talent and intelligence, enables some of them to experiment and produce highly original works (Miller, 2005). They are unbound by the cognitive associations required by highly detailed scientific knowledge.

psychiatric issues. However, recent research is revealing that the serotonergic system and its interaction with other neurotransmitter systems serve important cognitive roles as well. Recent evidence suggests that the balance between the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems appears to be critical for processing of reward and punishment (Krantz et al., 2010). The firing of midbrain dopamine neurons shows a firing pattern that reflects the magnitude and probability of rewards (Roesch et al., 2007;